When it comes to just about any of life’s problems, it seems that knowing is at least half of the battle. The remainder usually consists of planning, implementing, and following up. Protecting your business from employee theft or shoplifting is no exception. The more you know, the better you can prevent incurring preventable loss. When it comes to running a business, time is arguably the most valuable and scarce resource; even more than financial assets. If you do the math, investing a relatively small amount of time to obtain loss prevention training from a workshop or loss prevention seminar can save not only cash profits, but enormous amounts of time down the road.

When confronted with the reality of shoplifting in your store, it is easy to assume that the best option would be to hire an expensive security guard to monitor the store 24/7, or buy the latest and most advanced surveillance system. While these options may yield some effective results, spending a fraction of that cost and time on a quality loss prevention workshop can potentially yield far more effective results, giving you more bang for your buck. Quality loss prevention training will teach you how to effectively collect information that may indicate organized retail crime in your store, allow you to identify different patterns of theft, and create an effective, tailor-fit plan for your business.

But quality loss prevention seminars don’t only provide the knowledge and training necessary to prevent shoplifters from stealing stock. They provide you with the coaching to identify, investigate, and resolve employee theft—theft that can have a far worse impact on your bottom line. When it comes to deciding who should be a part of your business, fewer decisions can be more important. Hiring the right people to work for you is essential to remaining profitable. This is not only because you need employees who can do the job well, but also because you need honest people who will not take advantage of their position. Loss prevention seminars can teach you how to properly screen employees before hiring them, key indications that an employee might be stealing from you, various methods by which employees frequently take advantage of their employers, and how to resolve these issues as they arise. For example, many seminars will teach techniques like till salting to uncover cash theft, how to investigate stock discrepancies, and other essential skills to protect your assets.

Receiving training from loss prevention professionals, who make asset protection their business and living, can be invaluable. They can share a wealth of experience and information that they learned first-hand that can save you from having to do so. When I worked for a retailer in the loss prevention department, I discovered graffiti in the stockroom that spoke unfavorably about the company. It was obvious that there was a disgruntled employee in the store. After launching an investigation and monitoring the area, we discovered the disgruntled employee who, when confronted, admitted to hundreds of dollars in theft. Restitution was recovered not long thereafter.

Asset protection workshops offer a wealth of information from hundreds to thousands of hours of experience so that you don’t have to waste hundreds of your own. The knowledge you can obtain by spending a small fraction of time will continue to save you time and money well into the future. And, unlike other quick-fix methods, the knowledge will not break, quit, or cease to work.

For more information contact us: Loss Prevention Training or call 1.770.426.0547

In my line of work, out of the box thinking is crucial to survival. Thieves are always developing new tactics and schemes to get over on my business and I have to stay one step ahead of them. This is true whether I am investigating a theft, or trying to take pro-active measures to stop the theft before it ever happens. Securing merchandise can be one of the biggest challenges for any retail store. Sure, if you lock everything up behind a glass counter, chances are you won’t lose any product from thieves, but what would that do to your sales? I worked for a company that carried a wide assortment of product, and the two highest loss areas were electronics and apparel. 

We did our best with our apparel lines. We deployed clothing security devices to our commonly stolen shirts and pants and it would slow down the theft. Our problem was the electronics, and this one item in particular. It was a wireless bracelet that interfaced with a smartphone. It was new product on the market and we had a display set up that housed nearly 150 individual units. This display was not secured in any way, and using items like a spider wrap were just too costly. There was no plan from our buying office with this product and it, like most products in our store, were an open to sell concept. Meaning, to the LP guys, open season to steal. 

It wasn’t long before the company began to feel the pinch of the shrink on these bracelets. Sales were really good, but we were losing them just as quick. One day, about 3 months after the units first hit the stores, a company wide inventory was conducted and it was determined that we had lost more units that what were sold. We were no longer profitable on this item. That’s not a good position to be in. If you’re not profitable on the items you sell, how do you expect to stay in business? We began to look for solutions, and what we ended up with was pretty resourceful. 

In our main warehouse, we had hundreds of thousands of pencil tags. It’s a type of clothing security device that is easy to use, is pretty effective and most importantly, was inexpensive. I walked past the area these were stored in and began to tinker with an idea on how to use them on the bracelets. After some trial and error (and maybe even a few damaged bracelets), I was able to use the hard tag in a way that protected the merchandise from shoplifting. We simply slid the pin through the packaging, avoiding the bracelet altogether. Technically, it didn’t really secure the product, but it was a visible deterrent. It would surely make a thief think twice about taking one, or two.

We tagged all of the bracelets in this manner and we saw an immediate decrease on the number of units stolen per week. Best of all, we didn’t have to spend any additional budget dollars. While the units still come up stolen a few days a month, our simple solution of using a clothing security tag to secure a different type of item had allowed us to again be profitable on that sku. 

For more information, contact us: KW, or call 1.770.426.0547

Providing bottle service adds profit to your business, but if it is not managed correctly, it could be creating loss as well.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could solve all of your liquor theft issues in your nightclub by just making them disappear with the snap of your fingers? Are you just hoping that liquor loss is not occurring in your club? If hope or finger snapping is your strategy and it actually works, you should throw on a cape and call yourself a superhero, because you are one of a kind and you have super powers.  I’m sure many businesses would hire you to keep their shrinkage down.   I think you get the point, doing absolutely nothing to prevent loss is not a good strategy.  

In the real world, you need to look at your business needs and assess your situation.  If you have a club that provides bottle service, and there is alcohol disappearing from your inventory, you will want to look into purchasing bottle locks to protect your products. The first thing you want to look at is the accessibility of the product.  Is the product easily accessible to patrons as well as employees?  If so, you need to move it out of arms reach of the club patrons immediately, as some of them may be helping themselves to your drinks.  

Providing bottle service at your establishment would mean that bottles of wine or liquor around your guests would be normal.  It may not be that difficult for one of the guests to sneak another bottle and bring it back to their table or booth with bottles they have already purchased.  If you had bottle locks on all of your alcohol, this wouldn’t be an issue.  You would clearly be able to see that a bottle had not yet been purchased if the lock was still on the top of the bottle. 

Even if they did get their grubby hands on your liquor, the benefit denial of the locks would ensure they wouldn’t be able to enjoy it, because they would damage the bottle and there goes the liquor.  You would be able to control who has access to your product, because they will not be able to open the bottles without keys specifically made to remove the bottle locks from the bottles.  That would mean you could plainly see who has purchased their drinks, because the ones that didn’t would still have the locks on top of their bottles.

The crowds in nightclubs sometimes make it difficult to keep your eyes on all of your assets.  People in clubs are coming in and out constantly, music is playing, and it seems that someone is always needing something from you. Knowing this, and having a plan to try and keep loss at a minimum is imperative.  You may think you have it all under control when it’s not busy, but when the environment becomes hectic like this, it makes it much more difficult to keep a firm grasp on what is happening around you.  Don’t spread yourself too thin attempting to control everything yourself.  That’s why they have tools like bottle locks available to make it easier on you, and get rid of some of that stress you are carrying around with you.  

For more information contact us: (Nightclub Bottle Service) or call 1.770.426.0547